- Mitch Cullin
-
Mitch Cullin Born March 23, 1968
Santa Fe, New Mexico, United StatesOccupation novelist, short story writer, photographer, documentary producer Nationality 
United StatesPeriod 1996-present Genres Literary fiction Literary movement Postmodern literature
New Regionalism
LGBT literatureNotable work(s) Tideland
A Slight Trick of the MindPartner(s) Peter I. Chang[1]
[redroom.com/author/mitch-cullin redroom.com/author/mitch-cullin]Mitch Cullin (born March 23, 1968 in Santa Fe, New Mexico) is an American writer of Scotch-Irish and Cherokee descent. He is the author of seven novels, and one short story collection. He currently resides in Arcadia, California and Tokyo, Japan with his partner and frequent collaborator Peter I. Chang.[2][3] His books have been translated into over 10 languages, among them French,[4] Polish,[5] Japanese,[6] and Italian.[7]
The New York Times has described Cullin's writing as "brilliant and beautiful,"[8] but the author has confessed that "half the time I'm not even sure why I make choices in writing, or how it works when it works."[9]
Cullin's novel Tideland was adapted for the screen and directed by Terry Gilliam[10] in 2003, and the author also made a brief cameo appearance in the film, later stating about his time on the set: "There was a part of me that wanted to watch and experience every aspect of what Terry was doing… and he allowed me to do that while I was there if I wished to… but at the same time, I didn’t want his process to become too demystified… because I wanted to buy a ticket someday and sit down in a dark theater and simply watch the film without knowing too much about how it was filmed."[11] Despite mixed reviews from critics, Gilliam's film adaptation won the 2005 FIPRESCI prize at San Sebastián International Film Festival.[12]
In 2005, Cullin published his sixth novel A Slight Trick of the Mind, a portrait of Sherlock Holmes in old age for which The New York Times praised the author as being "an unusually sophisticated theorist of human nature,"[13] and Carolyn See of The Washington Post stated that "you don't read it to be 'improved' but for the plain joy of seeing what the language can do in the hands of an affectionate, very accomplished writer."[14] The audiobook edition the novel won the Audio Publishers Association's 2006 Audie Awards for Unabridged Fiction.[15]
Cullin's seventh novel The Post-War Dream was published by Random House in March 2008.[16]
According to The New York Times, a film version of Cullin's A Slight Trick of the Mind is in pre-production with the producers Anthony Bregman, Ted Hope, and Anne Carey, with a screenplay by Jeffrey Hatcher. Ben Kingsley is attached to star, and Yann Samuell is listed as the director.[17]
Contents
Career
While attending the University of Houston in the mid 1990s, Cullin befriended the author Mary Gaitskill. Gaitskill taught him in several writing classes. She remained a mentor after he dropped out of college and moved to Tucson, Arizona to write.[9] Since then, Cullin and Gaitskill have stayed friends, and in 2005 they did a one-on-one author appearance at Manhattan's Housing Works.[18]
Some of Cullin's early unpublished writings (including Afternoon Misdemeanors, The House of Special Purpose, and 6 Poems) are housed at Syracuse University in its archive collection of poet scholar Robert S. Phillips' papers, letters, manuscripts, and correspondence.[19]
Along with writers including Salman Rushdie and Amy Tan, Cullin is a founding author of the non-profit Red Room website.[20]
Music and film work
Cullin has worked with Giant Sand's Howe Gelb, helping to design the cover and logo for Gelb's 2003 solo album The Listener. The following year, with Canadian musicians Todd Bryanton and Rob Bryanton, he co-wrote the song "Lift Me Up To Sweet Jesus" for the soundtrack of Terry Gilliam's Tideland, a film based on his novel of the same name, and in which he has a cameo appearance.[21] Cullin is credited as the producer of Peter I. Chang's film I Want to Destroy America, a documentary about the life of Hisao Shinagawa.[22]
Works
Novels
Title Original Publication Date Original Publisher ISBN Whompyjawed 1999 The Permanent Press , ISBN 9781579621995 Branches 2000 The Permanent Press , ISBN 9781579620615 Tideland 2000 Dufour Editions , ISBN 9780802313409 The Cosmology of Bing 2001 The Permanent Press , ISBN 9781579620301 UnderSurface 2002 The Permanent Press , ISBN 9781579620776 A Slight Trick of the Mind 2005 Doubleday , ISBN 9781400078226 The Post-War Dream 2008 Doubleday , ISBN 9780385513296 Short Story Collections
Title Original Publication Date Original Publisher ISBN From the Place in the Valley Deep in the Forest 2001 Dufour Editions , ISBN 9780802313362 Anthologies
Title Story Contribution Original Publication Date Original Publisher ISBN Best Gay Erotica 1996 Playing Solitaire 1996 Cleis Press , ISBN 9781573440523 Happily Ever After The Snow Prince & The Bear 1996 Masquerade Books , ISBN 9781563334504 Best American Gay Fiction 2 Sifting Through 1997 Little, Brown , ISBN 9780316102995 Circa 2000: Gay Fiction at the Millennium Excerpt from 'The Cosmology of Being' 2000 Alyson Books , ISBN 9781555835170 Afterwords Aguas de Marco 2001 Alyson Books , ISBN 9781555836566 M2M: New Literary Fiction Fall 2003 AttaGirl Press , ISBN 9780929435725 Wonderlands: Good Gay Travel Writing Crows in the Hair 2004 The University of Wisconsin Press , ISBN 9780955282935 The Flash Bullets 2007 Social Disease , ISBN 9780955282935 スウィート・ドリームス第１号
Sweet Dreams #1At the Nageku Kinenhi 2007 Sweet Dreams , ISBN 9784990377106 Photography
Title Original Publication Date Original Publisher Notes INKEI/KAO 2007 Workshop Lo-Vi limited edition[23] Tokyo is Dreaming 2008 Workshop Lo-Vi limited edition[24] Filmography
- Tideland (2005) – as passenger on bus; Terry Gilliam's film version of Mitch Cullin's novel
- Getting Gilliam (2006) – as himself; Vincenzo Natali's documentary about Terry Gilliam and the making of Tideland
- This Band Has No Members (2006) – as himself; unreleased concert film of Howe Gelb performing in Kyoto, Japan
- I Want to Destroy America (2006) – producer/interviewer; Peter I. Chang's documentary about Hisao Shinagawa
- Making of Tideland (2007) – as himself; featurette on US, Canadian, and UK DVD editions of Terry Gilliam's Tideland
- Regina Monologue (2007) – as himself; short film released only as an Easter egg on Disc 2 of the UK DVD edition of Terry Gilliam's Tideland
- Q&A with Terry Gilliam and Mitch Cullin at the Hay Festival (2007) – as himself; bonus feature on the UK DVD edition of Terry Gilliam's Tideland
- Tokyo is Dreaming (2008) – producer/cinematographer; Peter I. Chang's documentary about modern-day Tokyo
- A Slight Trick of the Mind (2009; in pre-production) – an adaptation of Cullin's novel starring Ben Kingsley
Footnotes
- ^ Gathman, Roger (9 April 2001). "Not Your Everyday Texan". Entertainment Weekly. http://web.archive.org/web/20081009232921/http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA70934.html. Retrieved 12 August 2011.
- ^ Red Room bio
- ^ Weeks, Jerome (May 11, 2005), "A cult writer creates some mainstream buzz", The Dallas Morning News, http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-6557412_ITM, retrieved 2008-01-28
- ^ France (Editions Naive)
- ^ Polish edition
- ^ Japan (Kadokawa)
- ^ Italy (Giano Editore)
- ^ 24 September 2000 New York Times
- ^ a b Publishers Weekly profile
- ^ Tideland The Movie
- ^ Dreams interview
- ^ 2005 SSIFF
- ^ New York Times review
- ^ Washington Post
- ^ Audie Awards
- ^ Random House
- ^ A Slight Trick of the Mind movie details from NYTimes
- ^ Hogan, Ron, Pages from the social Diary, Beatrice.com (blog), http://www.beatrice.com/archives/001420.html, retrieved 2008-01-06
- ^ Robert S. Phillips Papers, Syracuse University, http://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/p/phillips_rs.htm, retrieved 2008-01-06
- ^ RedRoom writer profile, Red Room, http://redroom.com/author/mitch-cullin, retrieved 2008-01-06
- ^ Soundtrack for Tideland, IMDB, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0410764/soundtrack, retrieved 2008-01-06
- ^ A rock 'n' roll dream that won't die
- ^ INKEI/KAO
- ^ Tokyo is Dreaming
External links
- Cullin at Random House website
- Mitch Cullin's profile and blog at Red Room
- Official movie website for Terry Gilliam's adaptation of Tideland
Novels by Mitch Cullin Whompyjawed (1999) • Branches (2000) • Tideland (2000) • The Cosmology of Bing • (2001) • UnderSurface (2002) • A Slight Trick of the Mind (2005) • The Post-War Dream (2008)Categories:- 1968 births
- Living people
- American people of Cherokee descent
- Gay writers
- LGBT writers from the United States
- Native American novelists
- American novelists
- Postmodern writers
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